Anna LaRaine was her parent’s tax deduction, born December 31, 1935. She was born in Mount Pleasant, UT to Verla Mikkelsen and Wesley Phillip Marx. She was the oldest of five children.

As a girl, Anna LaRaine had the job of leading their cow to pasture to feed. She would sit on the ditch bank and sew, teaching herself to cut and stitch fabric to make doll clothes. It was there that she learned to sew. This was the beginning of a lifelong talent as she was a very skilled seamstress making school clothes for all of her daughters. She also made prom dresses, wedding dresses, including her own, coats, suits, quilts, etc.

She was very smart. After four or five months in first grade, she was reading on a fourth grade level. She loved math and science and English and excelled in all of these areas. She earned legendary status in Verl Johansen’s English class for being able to diagram any sentence with which he challenged her. Her younger siblings were reminded of this when they were in his class, which you can imagine didn’t go over very well!

She was given much responsibility at a young age. After her brother Gordon was born, her mother had three miscarriages in a row. During her mother’s ill health, Anna LaRaine learned to care for her little brother, clean, and cook meals and even learned to fix leaky pipes. At the young age of eight years old, she was an in-much demand babysitter for several families in Mt. Pleasant. Because money was very scarce, this helped purchase school notebooks. Even as a sixth grader, she was given the responsibility to take the elementary school lunch money that was collected, to the bank each week.

She was very athletic and quite the tomboy. She was always the pitcher on their baseball teams and could outplay the boys.

She played tennis at BYU, and loved to dance, and was especially good at dancing the jitterbug.

She became quite adept at shorthand and was often called upon to take down funeral talks and baby blessings as no one had tape recorders.

She was valedictorian for her 1954 graduating class at North Sanpete High School. From high school she then attended Snow College. She was the editor of the Snowdrift and president of the Scribbler’s Club. She enjoyed her close relationship with renowned teacher and advisor, Lucy Phillips, whom she suspects paid her scholarship tuition her sophomore year. She graduated in the top three from Snow College.

From Snow, she attended Utah State University. At the end of winter quarter, she got a call from BYU asking her to work in the University Publications Office. She declined because she was on scholarship at USU. However, at the end of the school year, BYU called her again; they had held the job for her.

She worked at BYU full-time and was able to take five credit hours each quarter. After two years she was able to graduate from BYU in 1959. Her assignment there was to edit all the abstracts of the master’s theses. After seeing the glaring errors in these, she took them to the head of the department and because of this she came up with a uniform list of rules for the master’s theses abstracts.

She was offered the prestigious job of being the editor of the BYU Alumnus Magazine, but at that time she felt she didn’t have the confidence to take that position.

Her boss came to her and said that he thought that BYU should have a new slogan. Though it was not adopted until 1965, Anna LaRaine came up with “The World is our Campus.”

The superintendent from North Sanpete School District, who at that time, now worked for the Granite School District, met her on campus and offered her a job as an English teacher. Because she did not have her teacher’s certificate, he could not hire her. The same day, Kenneth Maughan, from San Juan School District, offered her a job to teach high school English in Monticello. He said that if she committed to two years teaching, that that would give her a teaching certificate.

She had also thought to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but when she talked to her bishop he said that encouraged her to get married instead. So she chose to go to Monticello. After signing the contract, she cried all the way back to Mt. Pleasant.

Once she moved to Monticello, she never lacked for dates. She was sought after by many eligible bachelors. Buddy Redd courted her during the week and Buzz Crowley on the weekends.

Buddy’s parents, Jay and Marie Redd, actively took part in his courtship, often inviting her on family trips or up to the mountain to watch Buddy ski. She knew early on that he was the was right one for her. Buddy proposed to her on January 19 and presented her with a ring on Valentine’s Day. They were married in the Manti, UT LDS Temple, June 17, 1960.

Anna LaRaine always said that she was going to marry a white-collar worker who worked 9-5, carried a brief case and wore Jade East Cologne. Instead she married Buddy, a rancher, who worked all hours and wore Corral #5.

Anna LaRaine taught high school English for two years and then quit after her first child was born. She then stayed at home and raised her family, helped Buddy deliver calves, haul hay and do the books for Redd Livestock.

Her English and journalism skills aided her greatly in her service to her children’s homework, community programs, road shows and plays as well as being the first historian of the Monticello LDS Temple. At the request of her father-in-law, Jay, she wrote and published his biography.

She will be missed by so many friends she made through each stage of her life.

The San Juan Record welcomes comments on our stories. Please be civil, respectful, focused and humane. Postings are not edited and are the responsibility of the author. You agree not to post comments that are abusive, threatening or obscene. Postings may be removed at the discretion of sjrnews.com